Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. What he discovers is solace in that most human quality, imagination.

Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.

An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away? What if you could actually hear everyone's heartbeat? His goal is hopeful, but the past speaks a loud warning in stories of those who've lost loved ones before. As Oskar roams New York, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity who are all survivors in their own way. He befriends a 103-year-old war reporter, a tour guide who never leaves the Empire State Building, and lovers enraptured or scorned. Ultimately, Oskar ends his journey where it began, at his father's grave. But now he is accompanied by the silent stranger who has been renting the spare room of his grandmother's apartment. They are there to dig up his father's empty coffin.

Review:

“Energetic, inventive, and ambitious...an uplifting myth born of the sorrows of 9/11.” Boston Globe

Review:

“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a miracle, a daybreak, a man on the moon. It's so impeccably imagined, so courageously executed, so everlastingly moving and fine.” Baltimore Sun

Review:

"A funny, wise, deeply compassionate novel that will renew readers' faith that the right book at the right time still has the power to change the world." O, The Oprah Magazine

Review:

"Foer is definitely a new sort of literary warrior — virtuosic, visionary, ingenious, hilarious, heartbreaking. He brings an astonishing array of firepower to the page." Village Voice

Synopsis:

Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history.

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey.

About the Author

Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of the novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and a work of nonfiction, Eating Animals. His books have won numerous awards and have been translated into 36 languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Average customer rating based on 6 comments:

LizardW, April 2, 2014 (view all comments by LizardW)
In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, a nine year old boy, Oskar Schnell, deals with loneliness due to his father’s death from the terrorist attacks on 9/11. Oskar encounters grief due to his father’s death, neglection from his mother, insomnia, depression, and panic attacks. While searching through his father’s closet one evening, Oskar finds an envelope with the word “black” written on it, and a key inside. Oskar searches all around his apartment trying to find what the key opens. Eventually, Oskar searches all over New York, by himself, to discover what the mysterious key opens.
The setting of the novel was one of the most devastating times in American History. The were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda upon the United States in New York City and the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Four planes were hijacked so they could be flown into buildings as suicide attacks. One of those buildings happened to be where Oskar’s father was killed.
Oskar describes himself wearing “heavy boots” frequently, which is when he is feeling sad or depressed. “I thought for a minute, then i got heavy boots” (39). He is very smart for his age, although he skips school frequently to go on his key hunt. “I love that story because it shows how ignorant people can be” (11). His father used to tell him stories and play intricate problem-solving games where Oskar would have to work hard to find the answer. Oskar’s dad was his hero and his life is falling apart without him. He develops many problems throughout the novel such as insomnia, depression, and panic attacks. At night Oskar invents strange things, such as kite-string bracelets and watering skyscrapers.
The book does a wonderful job of achieving its goal. The goal of the book is to inform readers of the effects the 9/11 attacks can have on everyone, no matter the age, and also the struggles of childhood innocence and coping with loss. Some ideas and possibilities suggested by the book are how tragic the event was, and how little some people know about the attacks, and coping with grief. The book leaves out how everyone around Oskar feels in the situation, because it is only from the point of view of Oskar. The not-so-convincing points of the book are that a nine year old boy would not be able to skip school and wander around New York all by himself, in real life. Foer controls all of the aspects of the book such as language, character, and plot. He decided that Oskar should be the one telling the story, which is interesting to see something tragic told through the eyes of a child.
Oskar is a young boy that goes on a life-defining journey around New York. He developed many problems including his neglecting mother, and coping with loss. His grandparents taught his a valuable lesson in the book: when something is left in a nothing place it could never be retrieved.

Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No(2 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)

Booklover108, December 21, 2013 (view all comments by Booklover108)
I love the book! It is one of my absolute favorite books. I love how confusing it is, and how it took my friend and I like a 5 hour car trip to figure out what relation to Oskar the silent man with the yes and no tats has in the umm, 3rd chapter(?) with the letter. Anyway, love this book and totally recommend it. The movie is also excellent

Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history.

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey.

Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and gifts — here at Powells.com.